Johnaton Ellis seems to think that there is no way an Ajax app like Meebo can compete with traditional desktop IM clients. And in many ways he is right, but in just as many others he is missing the point. How many corporate desktops are locked down tight so you cannot install any unapproved applications? His take on this kind of Ajax app seems to be "When all you have is a hammer...[everything looks like a nail]". For those with a more nomadic pattern of computer usage you cannot depend on having the perfect tool for the job at hand.

I recently replaced the perfectly good RSS Reader Liferea with a private installation of TinyRSS. Liferea is the nicer app to use. It is more responsive, flexible, has more features and is in each and every way more pleasant to use than TinyRSS. So why did I switch? TinyRSS stays in synch. No matter where I go I can pop up my reader and not have to filter out the stuff I have read elsewhere already. This one single simple feature consigned Liferea to the dustbin. I was fed up with trawling through the posts I had already read over lunch or at a friends place, when I got home. TinyRSS lets me manage the feeds I read from anywhere. Its the first time a web app has completely replaced a desktop app for me. The rules of the game have changed. Some applications don't need to be the prettiest , the fastest or the most usable to win any more, some applications just need to be where I am.

If you still dont get where I am coming from, check out this quote from the Meebo Weblog.